Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Splitting Up Together’, An ABC Sitcom About A Divorcing Couple Who Still Have To Live Together

With the exception of You, Me and the Apocalypse, we haven’t seen Jenna Fischer in a series since The Office ended. So we were happy to see her in the new series Splitting Up Together. While it’s not as unique as her previous show, it looked like it had potential. Is it going to be her next long-running hit?

SPLITTING UP TOGETHER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A camera travels through a suburban home, seeing three children doing their thing in each of their rooms. A voiceover of a married couple — their parents, likely — go through the laundry list of things they needed to do before calling it a night, with the other answering simply “Yes” or “No.” Then we see the couple, who punctuate the list by giving each other a high five.

The Gist: We then hear a voiceover of a woman named Lena (Jenna Fischer) describe how hot and romantic things used to be with her husband Martin (Oliver Hudson), even after they got married. But once they started having kids, the romance died, and the two of them started feeling more like camp counselors and less like a romantic couple. It didn’t help that Martin wanted to do things like go for a run while Lena did the housework and child rearing. As the montage that spans the rise and fall of their romance ends, we cut to the two of them finishing the story at a dinner party, where they announce that they’re “pulling the plug” on the marriage, to their shocked friends and family.

Photo: ABC

One thing, though: they’re still living together. One reason is because they can’t afford selling the house. Secondly, it’s not like the parenting part was a problem, so it helps the kids have some consistency. And Lena has it all worked out: each week one parent does the parenting in the main house, and the other parent lives the single life in the garage/guest house. As we see the two switch things off, we see their parenting styles: Lena is a bit on the anal side, and Martin is on the lackadaisical side.

In the meantime, Lena tells her sister Maya (Diane Farr) and buddy Camille (Lindsay Price) that Martin stopped wanting sex with her, saying “he looked right through me.” Meanwhile, Camille’s husband Arthur (Bobby Lee), reminds Martin that he was so into himself that he even refused to dance with Lena at their wedding.

As the pilot goes forward, they both realize that they have their strengths. For instance, when older son Mason (Van Crosby) keeps texting his mom that “my balls hurt”, and a doctor prescribes masturbation for relief, Lena tries to set up a safe space for him complete with a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. And Martin realizes Lena has more of a handle on their kids’ everyday needs than he does.

Photo: ABC

Our Take: Here’s the thing about Splitting Up Together: if you’re parents in your 40s who feel more like chauffeurs than individual humans with lives, there’s lots of laughs on this show. Fischer plays the overworked wife whose carrying the mental load of her family very well. Oliver Hudson is Oliver Hudson: Let’s just say that playing dunderheaded husband who thinks he contributes more to the household than he actually does seems to be his forte (Rules of Engagement, anyone?). It certainly helps that Ellen DeGeneres is one of the show’s executive producers, and showrunning tasks have been put in the capable hands of Emily Kapnek from Suburgatory and Selfie.

But we sometimes want to beat our heads on a table when we see the trope of the dunderheaded husband who only thinks of himself and the long-suffering, overworked wife who seems to be there to just nag and kill all the fun in everyone’s lives. It’s a portrait that has been done to death, and does both mothers and fathers a discredit.

The pilot doesn’t undo any of these stereotypes, though the idea that the couple will have “single weeks” to think about what life is like alone may make the black-and-white portrayals of Lena and Martin a little more shaded. At the end of the pilot, Martin is seen taking dance lessons in order to make for the egregious act (one that we’ve never heard of before) of not dancing with Lena at their wedding. The fact that Kapnek is running things make us hope that this shading will continue to happen. But as of the pilot, we don’t know if we want to spend any more time with this family.

Parting Shot: We see Lena alone in the garage, contemplating a sexy poster that Mason wants in his room, and she suggests Wonder Woman in a text. Then Mason walks into his sisters’ room and Martin is there — it’s his week and he’s having a good time being the solo parent, which he wasn’t doing right after the divorce.

Sleeper Star: Bobby Lee’s character is funny because he knows he outkicked his coverage with Camille, and won’t ever let her forget about that.

Most Pilot-y Line: Really, the idea that Martin refused to dance with Lena at their wedding seems far-fetched. And the wedding video he looks at where he refuses and Lena is visibly hurt makes us think that Lena was stuck in a bad marriage from day one, and it didn’t take kids to make things go south.

Photo: ABC

Our Call: SKIP IT. We hate to say this, because we love seeing Fischer back on a sitcom and were big fans of Kapnek’s Suburgatory. But we just can’t watch any more of the dumb husband/suffering wife format, which should be retired permanently.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.